As I just told the missus
We will pay cash when ever POSsible! Glad we're not in the US
Cybercrooks are selling a new strain of potent Point of Sale malware through underground forums. “Pro PoS” weights in at just 76KB and packs mechanisms to frustrate antivirus analysis, as well as root-kit functionality, according to threat intelligence firm InfoArmor. Developers of the malware also integrated a polymorphic …
The obvious answer is to use your card once, cut it in half and request a new one.
By answering all those "Please have our credit card" mailings one should be able to build up a reserve of one-use credit cards big enough to cover the lead time on a new card from such-and-such provider.
Indeed, the banks should really just start issuing new cards on a weekly basis and mailing them out to heavy card users like me. Or base the decision on a given number of transactions. Twenty charges == new card in the mail, that sort of thing.
Gotta go. I hear the sultry siren call of Amazon.
"The obvious answer is to use your card once, cut it in half and request a new one."
I'm using this every single online purchase. I may start to use this with POS. Visa and Mastercard already offer services by which you create a virtual card number, limited in duration (2 months) and amount of money (your online purchase final invoice). That's at a french bank.
It is, indeed very secure, as frauding this would involve stealing the unique number, transmitted via a TLS channel AND getting the money before the online retailler gets it. Good luck with that !
I don't think this is mainstream in the US or UK, unfortunately. You guys need to go to your bank manager ...
"Interesting. Which one?"
Credit Mutuel. I've been using their service to pay for online stuff for now 8 years (I've bought probably 1 item/week online ever since (up to 1500 E stuff !)). Is free, easy, secure, and just works. I think other french banks are doing this as well.
Possibly Caisse d'Epargne is still stupid enough to have withdrawn this kind of service. I know for sure they did that, 3 years ago. Retarded.
Citibank cards in the US has had this for years now. The virtual number once used cannot be used at any other realtor, is valid by default for one month (but can be longer) and you can specify max ammount. The nice thing is if you have a reoccurring charge you can set a multi month virtual card, that even if stolen can't be used at any other realtor.